This guy has been a fantastic dad. He not only brings the chicks and their mother all sorts of bugs and grubs to munch on all day long, he’s never out of earshot and comes swooping in as soon as a giant human climbs up on the railing to screw with his kids.

The real star of the show has been Claudia, though. She is plopped on her brood day and night and only leaves for a few minutes at a time, and then only to go find them more food, without so much as a playstation 3 to bide her time.

The little guys are starting to overflow their nest. Now that they can see, they have apparently decided that they do not like me one bit and hunker down instead of blindly (and sickeningly–see previous post) beg for food. Their feathers are coming in nicely, though, and they’re (according to my personal reference librarian) all set to fledge in just a few days!

The baby cardinals are one week old and getting more and more precious by the second. Just look at those cute little peepers that are wide open as of today! Not to mention all the new feathers and horrible, horrible little neck veins!

I heard them start peepin’ at about 4:30 in the morning. They were totally silent this morning and when I got home from work, so I thought I had dreamed it until Claudia flew away and I was able to sneak up there to take a peek.

All three eggs hatched, but two seemed much more active than the other one and apparently thought the clicking of shutter meant they were about to be fed.

After I got that close, she flew off to a nearby branch and gave me the most intimidating look a bird has ever given a human.

And then began calling for her companion, who promptly swooped in to the rescue.

But, he didn’t quite understand what the issue was, and left.

I followed him a little bit, and when he noticed my incessant snapping of photos, he gave me a shitty look and promptly flew off.

Anyway, it’s hard to get a shot into the lady’s nest, but it looks like she’s got three eggs. She’s been sitting since last week (3/27/12), which means she should be due tomorrow (12 days later- 4/8/12)!

Good luck, Claudia the Cardinal! Plowerhouse those little BB cardinals. We believe in ya!